My Mechanical Soul
by Critara's Pride
Summary: Dorothy is kidnapped, and when she wakes up, she finds out that a scientist has tested a procedure on her - a procedure that turns androids into humans. But the procedure has a side effect - memory loss. Please R&R [Formerly known as "Life's Like This]
1. Chapter One

Life's Like This  
  
Summary: Dorothy is kidnapped and when she wakes up, she finds out that a scientist has tested a procedure on her - a procedure that turns androids human. But the procedure has a side effect - memory loss. R&R please!  
  
Rating: PG, might change.  
  
Notes: Some people debate whether Dorothy can sleep or not. I say she can. I mean, machines need rest too. Plus, what else does she do all night? Okay? Okay. 'Blah' means thoughts.  
  
Disclaimer: I own squat of Big O. Squat. So there.  
  
~Chapter One~  
  
'It works!'  
  
The man with graying hair grinned at the clear potion in the beaker. "It works." he said aloud. It felt good to say it. He grinned again, and called "Henry!" His nervous, clumsy apprentice came running.  
  
"Y- yes, Doctor?" he asked.  
  
"It works, Henry."  
  
"Th- that's great, boss."  
  
"It sure is."  
  
'I have finally succeeded. After so many years, I have finally done it. I have created life itself.'  
  
He grinned again, and said, "Now all we need is somebody to use it on."  
  
"Who wou- would that be, boss?"  
  
"I have somebody in mind." The man said, grinning again.  
  
Meanwhile.  
  
Roger Smith yawned, propping his legs on the table.  
  
"Roger, it's bad manners to put your feet on the table." Dorothy's monotone voice came through his tired ears.  
  
Roger smirked. "Somehow, I knew you were going to say that. Sorry, it's been a long day."  
  
"Shouldn't you go to bed then Roger?" Dorothy asked.  
  
"Yeah, but what's the point when I'll just be awakened early in the morning to your piano playing."  
  
'Is that a smirk on her face?' he wondered. 'God, maybe I should go to be. Now I'm seeing things.'  
  
"Well, goodnight Dorothy," he said quickly to his android friend before heading off to bed.  
  
"Dorothy, will you be retiring soon also?" Norman asked the red-haired android.  
  
"Yes, Norman, I think I will go now." She replied.  
  
"Goodnight Dorothy."  
  
Dorothy lay on her large bed, thinking.  
  
'Does Roger only see me as a mere android? What if I were human? Would Roger love me if I were human?'  
  
Dorothy shook her head and manually put herself to sleep.  
  
Later, in the Smith Mansion.  
  
Two men in black clothing from head to toe crept silently through the mansion.  
  
"This is perfect, boss. We blend right in!" Henry said enthusiastically.  
  
"Shh! Quiet! An android's ears are sensitive." The older man hissed at his young apprentice.  
  
They crept silently towards Dorothy's room. The old scientist walked towards her bed and just as he had pushed her CD case/headband open, Henry fell on the floor and created a very loud THUD.  
  
Dorothy's eyes snapped open, but the scientist quickly whipped out a small pair of scissors from his pocket and snipped a wire inside her CD case. Her eyes closed again as she fell back against her bed.  
  
"What'd you do, boss?" Henry asked.  
  
"Cut her awakening system. She won't wake again until the procedure is complete. Now, help me carry her. She's quite heavy."  
  
They soon arrived at the hidden building, which covered their laboratory, and Dorothy was soon on an operating table.  
  
The old scientist grinned as he took the liquid in his hands and began to work.  
  
The next morning.  
  
"Are ya gonna wake her up now, boss?" A familiar voice asked, awakening the old scientist who was sleeping in a chair.  
  
"Yes. Yes, Henry. The procedure was successful." He grinned a tired grin, as he had been working most of the night.  
  
He walked towards the girl lying on the table, and turned off the anesthesia.  
  
A/n: Cliffhanger! Just for now. I like to leave you in suspense for awhile. Remember to please review! I accept anonymous ones! :D 


	2. Chapter Two

A/N Wow! It's sure been a while. XX. It takes a lot of prodding to get me to write. Glad everyone enjoyed it, and I'm sorry if this chapter's a bit short. I wasn't sure what else to put!

Also: The new title change is only temporary. If you have an idea for a better title, tell me. I just couldn't stand the first title "Life's Like This." So, please, if you have a new title suggestion, don't hesitate! Or not, if you like "My Mechanical Soul"

She knew something was different even before she opened her eyes. For one thing, her body just felt so full of, life. She was about to open her eyes when she felt a jab of pain in her chest. Pain? She couldn't feel pain.

"Breathe, sweetie." A voice told her.

Breathe? She tried it. She inhaled slowly, then exhaled slowly.

She opened her eyes. This can't be possible, she thought. I'm . . . human.

"What have you done to me?" she spoke, getting used to have a real voice.

"I have made you human, young one." And older man, a young blonde man standing beside him.

She tried to remember her life before that moment, but couldn't remember anything, as a sharp pain came to her brain. A man. . . but it was all vague. All she remembered was being lifeless, her days programmed into her. Now she was human.

"I can't remember anything."

"Well, you might just have a little spell of amnesia darling. Don't you remember me, your father? Well, my name is Robert Dawson. Your name is Marie. And don't tell me you don't remember your fiancée, Henry Johnson?" he asked, a shiny look in his eye.

The younger man, Henry, gave him a strange look, but smiled gently and said, "Darling, you don't know how much I've missed you! I've been longing for the day you could finally return your love for me!"

"My head hurts. I still don't remember any of this." She said, looking around. It was as if she was really seeing things for the first time.

"I'm sure you'll come around, sweetie." The old man, her "father" said.

Marie swung her legs, rather clumsily, over the side of the bed, and slowly put weight on her legs. She felt like a newborn foal, as she was truly walking as a human for the first time. Her legs trembled, and the young man, Henry, grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. He blushed a bright shade of red. Why is he blushing? She wondered. I thought he was my fiancée.

She walked forward a few steps, with Henry's help, and soon felt stronger and more accustomed to her human body.

"I'll lead you to your room…"Henry said, uneasiness in his voice.

Marie nodded. This still doesn't seem right, she thought.

Meanwhile, back at the Smith mansion…

"You don't know where she is, Norman?" Roger paced around the room, running his hands through his hair.

"No, master, she didn't wake up at her usual time this morning, so when I went to check on her she was gone, without a trace!" Norman's face furrowed into a worried frown, and continued, "I have, however alerted Colonel Dastun and the Military Police is on a search for her."

"Do you think it could be Beck?" Roger asked.

"Colonel Dastun informed that Beck has yet to break out of prison, and wouldn't know anything about it."

"Who would want to steal Dorothy, besides Beck?"

"I don't know sir."

Roger sighed and put his head into his hands.

"Dorothy, please be ok…" he murmured quietly.

Marie, who had been sitting on her bed, stood up with a start.

"Who's Dorothy?" she asked Henry.

"What?" he asked.

"Dorothy… I just had a memory. A man, and he was yelling at a girl, and she was playing the piano, and her name was Dorothy…" she rubbed her aching head.

"I have no idea, dear. It must've been a dream you had when you we're under the anesthesia." He gave a nervous smile.

"I guess so…" she frowned.

'I'm just so confused,' she thought.

"Well, if I may, can I sit her alone for a while and just… try to figure things out?" she asked him, gently. It was difficult for her to find such emotion, for it was a new sensation.

"Certainly, darling." Henry seemed almost grateful for her wish to be alone, and he stepped outside the door quickly.

Marie closed her eyes and searched through her head to find any hint of what her life had been about. If what Henry said was true, why would he choose to marry and android? She assumed that the man who claimed to be her 'father' was the man that created her. Her mind was swirling with a vast amount of thoughts, and she was not used to such disorganization. She carefully lay down and tried to sleep, but found that it was more difficult being human since she had to wait for her body to naturally do so.

Natural… it felt so strange, this word did, to Marie.

"Norman! Why on Earth did you let me sleep in so late? It's nearly three!" Roger groaned, staggering out of the hallway with his hair a mess and his black pillow in hand.

"Master Roger, I apologize. You had quite a lot to drink last night. I did not think you would be too keen on awakening at an earlier hour," Norman said with a sigh.

"Oh… yes, I forgot. I'm just used to her waking me up early," Roger said as he cast a glance to the floor. "Any news yet?"

"No, Master Roger. I do hope she returns soon."

"So do I, Norman. So do I."

"I would like to go out for a walk, and get used to using my legs, if you don't mind," Marie said as she stepped awkwardly into the room where Henry and her father had been talking. They seemed to quickly end their conversation as Marie walked into the room.

"Oh, Marie. I'll go with you," said Henry, who quickly rose from the couch and carefully took her arm and helped her move towards the room to the door. Henry looked back to Marie's father and told him, "I don't think this will be long, but it will be good for her to experience fresh air, right?"

"Of course." That smile again. Marie couldn't help but feel…. What was it? She felt intimidated. By her own father. 'I don't think I quite understand my emotions yet,' she thought to herself.

Henry and Marie descended the stairs and crossed a peculiar looking room with tables that had stacks with beakers, papers, and strange liquids bubbling in test tubes. "What… is all this?" Marie asked slowly.

"Oh, this? Your father enjoys creating things, using science, in his spare time. He can create an array of interesting things. He'll show you sometime." Henry's voice still sounded awkward to Marie. It was strange, she had supposedly known this man for a long time, but she couldn't remember being in love with him. They exited the building and Marie found herself standing on the sidewalk of a bustling city.

"This city… what is it called?" asked Marie, looking around at all the buildings in an almost nostalgic way.

"This city is called Paradigm."

"Paradigm…"

"I can't take it. I'm taking the car, and I'm going to go look for her. Don't worry about dinner," Roger announced, who had been pacing back and forth for a quite some time. He grabbed his coat and headed out the door before Norman had time to respond.

Marie stood taking in all of the city. Yes, she vaguely remembered it. She noticed all the people walking down the street, all the cars driving down the street…. All the cars… that car… That car! She knew it, she knew that car!

Sleek, black, it drove by in a blur, but a memory in her mind matched up to it, like placing a piece of transparent paper over a photograph. Marie gasped. And then her mind drew a blank. The city disappeared in a black swirl, and she collapsed onto the pavement.

A/N: Thanks for waiting! All who read this, no flames please! I love you all!


	3. Chapter 3

My Mechanical Soul Chapter 3

She awoke to find the cold hard ceiling staring back at her. She noted that while she had been an android, the objects around her never seemed personified. Perhaps this new perception came with my new human senses, she thought to herself. She looked around the room and saw that she was alone. She was tucked into a bed in the same room she had awoken in the first time. What had happened? She vaguely remembered falling to the ground, but she could not remember why. 'Why can't I remember?' This thought raced through her head. The thought of this made her irritated, another new emotion that she had trouble grasping. At this point Marie had no idea what to do, since neither Henry nor her father were there, and she had never really done much of anything without their assistance. Different thoughts ran through her head that were so difficult to process at once; her mind wasn't at all used to this way of doing things. She could feel her mental energy draining away from her already, even though she had just been asleep quite a while, as she noted from the time on the clock.

She swung her legs awkwardly over the side of the bed and scuffled towards the window to peer out. She saw buildings across the road, on which there were dozens of cars driving slowly by, in this quietly sleeping town. This is Paradigm City, she thought, at least I remember that much. She glanced at the cars again and suddenly it hit her. That's what had happened, she had seen a car driving by, a black car that had roused some deep memory inside of her which had exploded into her newly-developed mind for just the slightest moment then left with a cloud of thick black smoke.

She noticed the mirror to her left and wandered over to it. As she stared at her own reflection, she decidedly couldn't remember if she had looked the same or not as an android. She had short red hair that brushed her chin, and now it was slightly messy-looking. She had deep blue eyes and pale skin, and she had a thin frame and petite figure. She picked up a hairbrush that had been laying on the table and began running it through her hair, thinking that functioning and thinking was starting to become more natural now. A question rose to her mind, Did she like it better as a human? She eventually decided that she wouldn't know, as she couldn't remember being an android. The thought that she couldn't remember saddened her, and as she lay the brush down she felt a heavy lump rise in her throat. She looked at herself in the mirror again and saw a tear fall from one of her eyes. She wiped it away, wondering why she was so sad. It was all very overpowering to her, and she tried to clean the thoughts away while she explored her room.

She thought it strange that no remnants of her old life as an android remained there. She thought there would be at least photos of her and Henry, her supposed fiancée, or of her father, but she couldn't find anything. Confused, she opened the door and walked quietly into the hallway. She decided against investigating each of the rooms individually in case someone was residing in them, so she carefully walked down the stairs. At first the house had seemed dead quiet to her but now she could hear voices from somewhere on the ground floor. Her bare feet crept along the cold hardwood floors ever so quietly, and as she passed through what appeared to be a living room she noticed a partially opened door leading to the kitchen.

She looked inside and saw her father, Robert, she remembered his name was, excitedly talking on the phone with someone. He had his back faced to her, and she decided not to bother him by making her prescence known. She knew it wasn't right to eavesdrop, but a new emotion, curiosity, bubbled up inside of her and she couldn't pull herself away, being half-hidden by the door.

"Yes, we managed to get a hold of a rather fine specimen for the experiment," The doctor jabbered excitedly into the phone. "Where did we get her? Well, you can tell a soul, but," the doctor paused a moment, then, in nearly a whisper, spoke again, "we kidnapped her." Marie's eyes widened. What or who was he talking about? She felt her heart beat faster and faster, something that she hadn't been accustomed to, even when it was beating regularly.

"Yes. Her name was Dorothy or something like that, but we have her convinced that she's Henry's fiancée." He laughed. "Imagine that! Henry having a fiancée! Anyway we've told her that her name's Marie, and I'm her father. Yeah, I know. Me, a father." He laughed again, but Marie felt her stomach sink, and a chill passed through her body. He was talking about her. She couldn't comprehend it. Her name was Dorothy, and not Marie, and she wasn't Henry's fiancée at all? She was kidnapped. She felt a new feeling, imprisoned. The walls around her were keeping her in against her will, and she didn't belong here at all.

She noticed the front door, and crept toward it, silently unlatching its lock. Then, she threw open the door and willed her frozen legs to move forward, and she was running down the street, the new tears again forming in her eyes. She felt the adrenaline coarse through her blood, and she ran and ran, down what seemed like the same sidewalk, just trying to get away that house. She kept blindly running, she didn't know where she was going or what she was going to do, but her mind had failed her, and all she knew was the same endless sidewalk.

Finally, Dorothy stumbled and all but collapsed into a heap on the pavement. She thankfully caught her fall with her hands, and then shakily rose to stand and wiped the tears out of her eyes so she could look around. There were a few people here and there on the sidewalk, but none of them seemed to notice Dorothy at all. Lazy cars glided by on the street, and she looked up the dome above her and saw it was dark. This town has no memory, she thought, just like me. The few stars and crescent moon shone above her, but the neon lights of all the nearby buildings really illuminated the sidewalk she walked along. She then whirled around and noticed the building in front of her was a bar, called the Speakeasy. This name felt familiar to her but, as usual, she couldn't remember a thing about her old life. Her life as Dorothy.

Afraid to stick out on the illuminated street, she retreated inside the comforting shadows of the bar. She shuffled in quietly, quickly realizing that many eyes fell upon her. She had begun to come to her senses after her flight from the doctor's home and she realized that her throat seemed to burn with an intense thirst. She inched her way up to the bar and timidly asked the bartender for a glass of water.

"That's all? Just water?" the bartender looked surprised.

"Yes, well, I don't have any money." She never looked up at him as she spoke quietly.

"Hey, this isn't a charity service, girl. We can't just give free drinks to all the homeless in Paradigm. However, I'm too nice and can't say no to a young girl," he finished with a sigh. He quickly poured a glass of water and handed it to her. She sat at the end of the bar away from everyone else, and at first took small sips of her water, getting used to the way it slid down her throat.

After a while the people of the bar turned their attentions away from her, and Dorothy grew braver, glancing around the bar. None of the bar's visitors caught her interest until she saw two men near the back talking to each other in quiet tones. They must not have noticed her walk in because they didn't notice at all while she watched them. One of them was reading a newspaper, and she couldn't see much of him, and the other had his head in his hands on the small bar table, with many empty glasses around him. He had dark black hair and equally black suit, and had she seen him somewhere else she would've thought of him a neat gentleman. His features remained hidden from her as he kept his head down. She could hear him sighing exasperatedly, and he said "I don't understand. I've looked everywhere for her. She seems to have disappeared without a trace." The man's voice was slightly slurred, and she could tell by the empty glasses that he had had quite a bit of alcohol.

He glanced up for the slightest moment and Dorothy thought she felt her heart stop. She quickly looked away so the man wouldn't notice she was staring at him, but his face remained imprinted on her mind, and she knew, she absolutely knew, that she had seen this man before. Now the memory of him escaped her, but she felt the uncanny feeling that she had know this man, very well, when she was Dorothy. She swallowed hard, deciding what to do. If her gut feeling was right, if she had known him before she had been kidnapped (she shuddered just thinking the word), then he would know her as well and possibly recognize her. But what if she was wrong, and she didn't know him at all? She could feel his hot gaze upon her, and she slowly turned her face to make eye contact with him. And all time seemed to stop.

A/N: Sorry, I know I love to leave you few who read this hanging! Actually, it seems only my fanfiction ever gets reviews and my stuff on FictionPress doesn't! Anyway, I'm sorry that I'm so slow… gosh I must seem incredibly lazy! Reviews are greatly appreciated.


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